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Listening BoothYOUR MUSIC ONLY. Don't post music from your label or DJ night. No podcasts or radio shows, just individual tracks. Give some feedback, get some in return.
Please follow the title format:
[Genre] Artist - Title

Sounds good but not finished. I like the darker industrial edge to it. Have you considered vocals? It has a good skeleton but needs more fleshing out imo.

Thanks so much for listening and commenting. I am considering vocals for almost all of my tunes. But I don't have any mics or micpre's or hardware compressors yet.

Other than that, my style tends to be intentionally MNML (minimalistic). I find that it helps the clarity level tremendously to simply just not have too many elements. The tune is 100% completed however.

But if you have any more specific ideas of what to overdub I'll consider it?

The extreme high end is a bit sharp on the ears perhaps, especially the hi-hat type sounds. If you run the mix through a frequency analyzer, notice how there's a spike around 28kHz and above (mostly outside of human hearing). Using a master eq/low pass filter to turn that down a notch might be worth a go I think.

The extreme high end is a bit sharp on the ears perhaps, especially the hi-hat type sounds. If you run the mix through a frequency analyzer, notice how there's a spike around 28kHz and above (mostly outside of human hearing). Using a master eq/low pass filter to turn that down a notch might be worth a go I think.

What kind of synthesizers are you using?

Thanks very much for your insights. I will check out the tune as you mentioned when i get home tonight. I do tend to get crazy with EQs. I appreciate your specifically detailed explanation. I can work with that.

I can't remember exactly which synths I used, they are all VST instruments though, no hardware at all. I do use Vember Surge a lot though, and in my older tunes I used Image-Line Toxic Biohazard. But I also use some processed and edited samples in HighLife and I will be incorporating Short Circuit more as time goes by because it's so powerful for making samples sound like high-end synths.

Also, I probably used some basic TAL stuff a littlel bit. I do like ZynAddSubFX for pads, but I can't remember if I used it on that tune. I will try to pay more attention to which gear I'm using in my future tunes. In the past I've used Synth1 VSTi, but I'm not as into it these days as I used to be.

Also, I've been freezing a few presets that I like in HighLife. I'm pretty attracted to U-He Zebralette's types of sounds, but I hardly know how to integrate most of them into actual tunes. Zebra(lette) does sound pretty exotic, though, which is nice.

Overall, I try to keep using different sounds as much as possible every time without losing some reliable sounds which are like healthy vitamins. For my drums, I use a cherry-picked set of samples from a wide variety of downloads and a few extracts from VST synths.

Most users will probably start recognizing some DSK instruments, so I've started to avoid using those as much.

Lately I'm finding that sampled synths can be a powerful avenue for certain types of sounds because you can reprocess them. However, a lot of the oscillator harmonic movement is lost during sampling, so you have to add it back in if the sound needs it.

But in terms of maintaining a variety of sounds, sampling really helps a lot.

Toxic Biohazard and Harmor I will be trying to get reacquainted with because they are so powerful.

There are a lot of random freewares I encounter because I test drive a lot of them. Most of them can't do much but tend to have about 10 nice presets with a slightly unique sound, so those are good to freeze sometimes. If there are more than 10 nice presets and an easy user interface, then I tend to keep and use the whole plugin.

I try to build my own presets as time goes by. Also, when my DAW is up to 100% I will be trying to do more VST instrument parallel layering like the hardware synth users did in the 1990s.

Anyways, thanks for reading this. i will sincerely try to keep the tunes interesting. It's hard, but I'm trying. If just one person really likes a tune, then I feel like it's worth it. But if nobody acknowledges liking any tunes, I start to feel depressed. For that reason, I try not to read these responses too much lol.

I mostly use hardware synthesizers and Ableton's native devices myself, so most of the instruments you name are unknown to me. It's interesting to me that VSTs sound so good today, and think I'll have to look more into some of the stuff you mention.

Thanks!

hmm..

I'm not sure I understand your comment about how sampling loses harmonic content. Do you mean how the sample is static (sounds exactly the same every time), or do you mean that the sound-quality gets worse when you sample?

And how do you fix it?

When I sample I mostly do it by recording directly into the DAW, so I'm basically using Ableton's arrange view as sampler/sequencer. With this method the sound quality isn't audibly compromised unless I pitch or warp the samples.

PS: I recognise the problem with wanting people out there to like what I do, but I haven't found an ideal solutions for it yet. So many people on the internet are competing for attention, that it sometimes can seem a bit hopeless..

In the past I've tried to work with a number of different small DIY/non-profit labels, mostly releasing things on very limited cassette editions and digitally.

For me, working like this can sometimes create enough of a reason for me to keep going. It gives me someone to write back and forth with, exchange ideas etc. So it feels much less random. Sometimes it sucks as well, like how getting something released in another country (without going there) can feel strangely empty, - but much of the time it has worked as a motivation for me anyway. Probably because I'm an idiot.

But please: If you post something here and no one responds, that doesn't mean that your music sucks. It might suck of course, but deciding if it does or not, that needs to remain your decision!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Iyashi Sound View Post
I like it, and didn't feel like anything was missing.

The extreme high end is a bit sharp on the ears perhaps, especially the hi-hat type sounds. If you run the mix through a frequency analyzer, notice how there's a spike around 28kHz and above (mostly outside of human hearing). Using a master eq/low pass filter to turn that down a notch might be worth a go I think.

Hmmm, I was thinking about this... I recorded at 48 kHz max. The maximum frequencies in the audio technically and according the spectrum graphs in Foobar is 24 kHz. Nothing goes up to 28 kHz, and definately not above. So... there must be a problem in your system and possibly not mine.

The Nyquist frequency makes it impossible to be above 24 kHz. And my VST effects can't run higher than 48 kHz either, and neither can my soundcard.

Am I being trolled? LOL

Anyways, it does sound a bit too trebley, to be fair. I will try to remaster these tunes that are affected when I can. I think it's because I had my monitors placed in the wrong spots.

The waveforms are bright though, and because my monitors weren't in the right place when I mixed, it probably still sounds almost harsh to some ears and in some playback situations. I am still going to try and improve the EQ mix, or at least run it through r8brain and transcode to 16-bit 44.1 kHz WAV (which would filter it to 20 kHz by default).

Interesting electro-concept, like the variety of ideas even it's - as you mentioned - pretty 'minimal' and 'raw' as you use fx and modulations pretty sparingly. As all of the synths sound 'oldschoolish' it's got overall a nice vibe.

Nice work, was waiting for the Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock sample to drop in.
Overall, not finished, but works, however feels the flow is several ideas glued together, would like to hear more cohesion between the parts.
Nice electro vibe, with a gaming theme tune running through it.
Most stand out listening criticism is the overall quantising, it feels to rigid and could do with some swing to it. Just my opinion of course.
A WIP in my opinion.

Nice work, was waiting for the Afrika Bambaataa - Planet Rock sample to drop in.
Overall, not finished, but works, however feels the flow is several ideas glued together, would like to hear more cohesion between the parts.
Nice electro vibe, with a gaming theme tune running through it.
Most stand out listening criticism is the overall quantising, it feels to rigid and could do with some swing to it. Just my opinion of course.
A WIP in my opinion.

Thanks for the deep analytical listening.
I will keep reviewing this tune and see what I can do.
Right now, I can't figure out what else I could add to it which wouldn't spoil it, but maybe I'll get some different ideas as I spice up my DAW.

Interesting electro-concept, like the variety of ideas even it's - as you mentioned - pretty 'minimal' and 'raw' as you use fx and modulations pretty sparingly. As all of the synths sound 'oldschoolish' it's got overall a nice vibe.

Cool! Yeah, I admit my affinity for electronic music nostalgia from around 1989-1990s. I'm glad I didn't let you down.